Father's Day Gifts

If you are my husband, dad, or father in law, stop reading this and come back on Sunday. :)

Father's Day is a tricky holiday. In fact, it's might be the toughest holiday for me, gift wise. The men in my family seem to be notorious for not wanting gifts.  Every holiday is a battle, but Father's Day is three times the trouble. 

I try to keep it simple for Father's Day so that these special dads get a gift, but not something that is as close to nothing as possible.  Last year, the dads received a big container of cashews, stating that we were "nuts" about them. The great thing about this gift was that it was consumable!

This year, we kept with the same theme for the grandpas. Their gift from the girls are jars of Kisses, different varieties, with a cute tag. Who doesn't love chocolate???

You can download the printable by clicking the image above.

I saw the most hilarious idea for Andy on Pinterest and I knew it was perfect for his gift from the girls. It was a Car Massage Shirt that had a town map drawn on the back of a t-shirt, which was used for driving toy cars on and thus giving the wearer a massage. Andy loves having the girls walk on his back and drive cars around on his back already, so I knew he'd love it.

I made mine by taping four pieces of paper together and drawing a template. I put the template into the shirt and traced the design using fabric markers. The blog where I got the idea from has a template available, but I made my own, and included our house and the girls. I think it came out pretty cute (pardon my rudimentary drawing skills. ;)).

My girls have the best Daddy and grandfathers in the world and I hope they feel loved every day.  Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there!

Thanksgiving Teacher Gifts

Did Thanksgiving sneak up on anyone else? I swear that we went trick-or-treating yesterday and then BAM! It's turkey time.

I realized that I needed to get a move on to put together a little gift for Emma's teachers to thank them for the amazing job they do every day. Since she only has school on Monday next week, I needed it to be something that could be done quickly, but still be cute. Cue Pinterest.

I had seen these cute waffle cone cornucopias that I thought would be perfect, but it involved boiling water and steaming cones or baking the cones...no thanks. One pin caught my eye because it involved dipping the end of the cone in water and then putting it in the microwave. I like the microwave. Unfortunately, this did not produce a pliable cone that could be rolled into a cornucopia shape. It made a sticky, goopy waffle cone.

So I thought fast (it happens) and decided to cover the cone with a damp paper towel and then put it in the microwave.

 

 After 20 seconds, the cone was soft enough to mold. If you microwave it too long, it will burn. Keep an eye on it! While it was still in the microwave, I quickly curled the end of the cone around a clean pencil and held it for about a minute. I removed the pencil and viola! I had a cute little cornucopia. 

 

 

I filled it with some goodies, tied a ribbon and a tag to it and they were cute as could be. The prefect little "thanks" for two sweet teachers.

 

 

Spa in a Jar

Tomorrow is Emma's last day of preschool for the summer. I can't believe that her first school experience is already over! She has learned so much and has loved everything, especially her teachers. I wanted to give both of her teachers a gift that they would enjoy and could "use up." Teachers collect so much "stuff" over the years. I saw a great idea on Pinterest for "Pampering in a Jar." It looked easy, cute, and something that anyone could enjoy.

We found most of our items at Target for pretty cheap: Ball jars, Dove chocolates, fuzzy socks, lotion, gel eye pack, lip balm, and a face mask. 

We put all of the items into the jar, tied a pretty ribbon around it, attached a little note, and deemed it a Spa in a Jar.

 

These were super simple to put together and came out pretty cute. I think I need to make one for myself!